Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed

Bosnia and Herzegovina, often referred to as Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe. In 1992, following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the republic proclaimed independence, and this was followed by the Bosnian War, which lasted until late 1995 and ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement. The Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in July 1995 was ruled to have been a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Seat of power: Sarajevo

Rulers

Haris Silajdžić

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1993–2000

Haris Silajdžić was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 1996, and previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1993. After his term as Federal Prime Minister ended, he was appointed Co-chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997, serving until 2000.

Portrait of Haris Silajdžić: European Commission, CC BY 4.0, file

Alija Izetbegović

Head of state, 1996–2000

Alija Izetbegović served as the president of the presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1990 to 1996, and later as the first chairman of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996 to 1998, and then briefly in 2000. The Croat-Bosniak War was halted by the 1994 Washington Agreement, which Izetbegović signed with Croatian President Franjo Tuđman. Izetbegović was also a signatory for the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in a stalemate following NATO bombings.

Portrait of Alija Izetbegović: Helene C. Stikkel, Public domain, file

Živko Radišić

Head of state, 1998–2002

Živko Radišić served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1998 to 2002. Radišić was elected Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency in the 1998 general election, defeating the incumbent Momčilo Krajišnik by 45,000 votes. He chaired the Presidency from 1998 until 1999 and again from 2000 until 2001.

Portrait of Živko Radišić: Adamir Jerković, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Ante Jelavić

Head of state, 1998–2001

Ante Jelavić served as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1998 to 2001. At the 1998 general election, Jelavić was elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, having obtained 52.91% of the vote. On 7 March 2001, Jelavić was removed from office by the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch.

Sulejman Tihić

Head of state, 2002–2006

Sulejman Tihić served as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006. In the 2002 general election, Tihić was elected Bosniak member of the Bosnian Presidency, serving as its member until losing his bid for re-election in 2006.

Portrait of Sulejman Tihić: European People's Party, CC BY-SA 2.0, file

Željko Komšić

Head of state, 2006–2014

Željko Komšić has served as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2018, having served from 2006 to 2014 as well. He served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, and was awarded with the Order of the Golden Lily. In the 2006 general election, Komšić successfully ran for a seat in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Croat member.

Portrait of Željko Komšić: European Union, Attribution, file

Nebojša Radmanović

Head of state, 2006–2014

Nebojša Radmanović served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2014. Radmanović was elected in the 2006 general election to a four-year term as Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and assumed office on 6 November 2006, alongside Haris Silajdžić and Željko Komšić.

Portrait of Nebojša Radmanović: European Commission, CC BY 4.0, file

Haris Silajdžić

Head of state, 2006–2010

Haris Silajdžić served as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2010. In the 2006 general election, Silajdžić successfully ran for a seat in the Bosnian Presidency as a Bosniak member obtaining nearly 63% of the vote, defeating incumbent Sulejman Tihić.

Portrait of Haris Silajdžić: European Commission, CC BY 4.0, file

Bakir Izetbegović

Head of state, 2010–2018

Bakir Izetbegović served as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2010 to 2018. In the 2010 general election, Izetbegović was elected Bosniak member of the Bosnian Presidency. He was re-elected four years later in the 2014 general election.

Portrait of Bakir Izetbegović: European People's Party, CC BY 2.0, file

Dragan Čović

Head of state, 2014–2018

Dragan Čović served as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2005 and from 2014 to 2018. He has also held the role of Federal Minister of Finance from 1998 to 2001, and was the acting Federal Prime Minister from January to March 2001. He has been the president of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) since 2005.

Portrait of Dragan Čović: European Commission, CC BY 4.0, file

Mladen Ivanić

Head of state, 2014–2018

Mladen Ivanić served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018. Ivanić served as minister of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2007. He was also Prime Minister of Republika Srpska from 2001 to 2003.

Portrait of Mladen Ivanić: European People's Party, CC BY 2.0, file

Milorad Dodik

Head of state, 2018–2022

Milorad Dodik served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2022. He served as the prime minister of Republika Srpska from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2010. He served as president of Republika Srpska from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025, having previously held the office from 2010 to 2018.

Portrait of Milorad Dodik: Office of the President of Russia, CC BY 4.0, file

Šefik Džaferović

Head of state, 2018–2022

Šefik Džaferović served as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2022. He was elected in the 2018 general election by a narrow margin and chose not to seek re-election in the 2022 general election.

Portrait of Šefik Džaferović: European Union, Attribution, file

Željka Cvijanović

Head of state, 2022 to today

Željka Cvijanović has served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2022. In the 2022 general election, Cvijanović was elected as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, becoming the first female member of the Presidency since the end of the Bosnian War. She was re-elected to a second term in the 2026 election.

Portrait of Željka Cvijanović: European Union, Attribution, file

Denis Bećirović

Head of state, 2022 to today

Denis Bećirović has served as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2022. He has also been serving as chairman of the Presidency since March 2026.

Culture

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bicameral legislature and a presidency made up of one member from each of the three major ethnic groups.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has around 3.4 million inhabitants, composed chiefly of three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, who form one half of the population, followed by Serbs at one-third and Croats at one-sixth.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has been an EU candidate country since 2022, and a NATO membership candidate since 2010.

Picture

Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits.

Image: Julian Nyča, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.